Gumpaste Questions. Need Help Bad

okay I found wilton premade gumpaste. I know its not the best, and some wouldnt use it if their life depended on it. BUT, I'd like to work with it before I start to make my own.

I am making a tiara, I tried to roll out some peices to shape and they all ended up uneven. (circumfrance wise)

partly that was a carbon based error. BUT there was also some small peices of very hard paste in there. Rock like peices. small ones, the size of 1/8- to 1/4 karat diamond. Is this common? I would get one rolled almost all the way out and the dang thing would have this knot in there that hadnt colored or anything and it would ruin the string. breaking it in half and I would have to ball it up and start over.

is there a trick to it? how do you roll yours? and I am not talking about rolling flat, but rolling into a string.

Rolling flat was agervating enough. LOL so a tip there would be fine too. LOL

My other question.

what is gumpaste glue?

This gumpaste is very thick, to the point that it hurts my hands to knee it. is this normal? I know it shouldnt be runy, but should it be more like bread dough? or is it supposed to be hard to deal with? its much harder than pladoh, or such.

It kinda sounds like you got a packed that was partly dried out. I've only had one package that did that and I exchanged it. The new one still had hard bits and I cut them away. Do you have some crisco to knead into the gum paste? Take smaller pieces and be sure to knead it really well, not using too much crisco. I don't mind the Wilton ready to use stuff. It does help to use it so you know what consistency it should be like. I've never tried to work the hard little bits. You may want to try to smash the little bits down with your rolling pin.To make a sausage shape, you could use something like a pencil or something similar in shape and roll beside it, using the pencil as a guide.The glue I use is tylose and water. I now make the Nicholas Lodge recipe for gum paste and it is really similar to the Wilton stuff. Hope this is helpful for you!!

i make nick lodges.. or use wilton.. i love wilton.. i teach gumpaste flowers at michaels.. the students buy it.. if it has a lot of hard pieces.. then they exchange it . if little break off. do not knead in with the rest of gumpaste. works great for me.. i have bought other brands already made.. had some hard pieces in them.. just break off and not knead it.. even the homemade sometimes of nicks can have the hard pieces. nothing is perfect.. thats the way i look at it anyway.. just work around it.. even in jennifer dontz dvd. her pearl clay can have hard pieces.. she says just work around it.. i see on here. that a lot of people hate wilton so bad.. they have nothing good to say about any of the products. i,ve ordered other famous name products.. and was dissappointed when i got it.. you send it back or keep it and work with it until you like it most of the time.. just knead this gumpaste good.. no hard pieces.. you will see that it will work for you.. works for me all the time.. hth

The gumpaste when kneaded should feel like a piece of bread dough that has been terribly overworked. Soft skin but no air and very dense yet not hard if that makes any sense. And like a previous poster said use some crisco to knead and cut away the extremely hard pieces. If your kneading it correctly you should be able to feel any hard bits. Cut away a tennis ball size of paste add about teaspoon of crisco to your hands and smush together then knead like dough. roll into ball in your hands to smooth away any seams. Try using a fondant smoother for rolling into sausages- learned that one from Debbie Brown , thanks Debbie.

Oh yeah if your still having a hard time with it, chuck it and get a new pack. Try satin ice gumpaste I love it. never ever any hard pieces in it when it is brand new. Now that I don't cover it correctly is a different story...lol

I recommend you try Wilton's gumpaste that you mix yourself. It's cheaper and fresher, and it definitely smells better. I think the odor of the premixed is just horrible. When you mix it yourself it's fresh and won't have dried out lumps in it. I agree that the lumps are dried out pieces that you'll have to pick out.

Be sure to wrap the Wilton mix-your-own gumpaste in plastic wrap and then a ziplock bag with the excess air pushed out or it will dry out, too. I slicker mine up with some shortening before I wrap it to ensure it doesn't get that crust. The drying seems worse after I color it, too.

I am kinda stuck with what I can buy at walmart, and they dont have the premix. I would have prefered that.

I will keep working it, seeing if I can mold it better, the fondant smoother is a great idea! thanks, cause your hand is oddshaped and it kinda makes my things uneven. Thank you!

I think my best bet is to do it when the kids are nowhere around (with 4 thats not easy) so I can spend time with it. Their constant interuptions, or 'wanting to help' agervate me and make me try less to work on what I am doing.